Saturday, October 29, 2016

According to sources in Nabanna, Sarkar wrote to the Chief Minister and the state Finance Department seeking an extension of the eight-member Commission as hearing of many of the applications is yet to be completed.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced the setting up of the Pay Commission on November 27 last year. Initially, the Commission was granted six months to file its report. Later, it was extended by another six months.

The Commission received around 1,100 applications including those from various government employees’ associations and intends to hear all the applicants before preparing the final report. Based on the report, the state government will decide on restructuring of the salary of its employees.

Besides, the Commission also has to examine policies including existing promotion policies, related aspects, benefits and allowances to the employees.

While the Commission report was pending, the Mamata Banerjee government announced an interim relief of 10 per cent on band pay to the state government employees.

The Chief Minister made the announcement soon after coming to power for the second term. The interim relief came into effect from July this year, for which the state government has allocated Rs 3,000 crore.

State government employees are eagerly waiting for the revision in their pay structure as there is a difference in the dearness allowance paid to them and the Central government employees.

The Hon’ble Supreme Court in its Historical 102 pages Judgment in Civil Appeal No. 2013 of 2013 dated 26.10.2016 has directed that Temporary Employees, Adhoc Appointees, employees appointed on Casual basis, contractual employees and the like, if the concerned employees are rendering similar duties and responsibilities as were being discharged by regular employees holding the same/corresponding posts are entitled “for equal pay for equal work” such employees are entitled for draw wages at the minimum of the payscale extended to regular employees holding the same posts. We will be representing to the Govt. To implement this Judgment and issue a common order in this regard. Full judgement is reproduced below:

The Union government on Thursday approved 2 per cent dearness allowance and relief benefiting about 50.68 lakh employees and 54.24 lakh pensioners.

The decision to provide 2 per cent DA on basic pay was taken by the Cabinet and will be effective from July 1, 2016.

The 2 per cent DA will result in annual burden of Rs. 5,622.10 crore, though for period of eight months (July-February in 2016-17), it would be Rs. 3,748.06 crore.

The central government had increased DA by 6 per cent to 125 per cent in March 2015. DA was later merged with the basic pay following the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission.

“The Union Cabinet has given its approval to release an instalment of DA to Central Government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to Pensioners from July 1, 2016 representing an increase of 2 per cent of the revised Basic Pay/Pension, to compensate for price rise,” a press statement said.

According to the statement, the increase is in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be Rs. 5,622.10 crore per annum and in the Financial Year 2016-17 for the period of 8 months (i.e. from July 2016 to February 2017), it would be Rs. 3,748.06 crore.

The women employees of the Central government will soon be able to file sexual harassment complaints online.

The decision was taken at a meeting called by Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Maneka Gandhi today after she received complaints from aggrieved women employees from various ministries.

Officials from Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Railway Ministry, Sports Ministry and Department of Financial Services were present at the meeting.

The e-platform for posting complaints will be hosted on the Women and Child Development ministry's website, a senior official said, adding the complaints will then be taken up with the respective ministries/departments.

An inter-ministerial committee headed by a senior WCD official will be constituted to review the status of the complaints. The forum will also ensure that all Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) heads are imparted training on how to resolve such complaints, he said.

It has also been decided that the DoPT will issue instructions to ensure that training programmes for all services include a module on Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 to sensitise the government staff.

Additionally, the WCD ministry will issue guidelines for dealing with sexual harassment complaints. These will include a monthly as well as an annual report, to be prepared by the Internal Complaints Committee of each ministry, on the status of complaints received.

The cadre controlling authority of a victim will be required to monitor her progress for 5 years, in order to ensure that she is not further tormented for complaining against a colleague, the official said.

A similar exercise for the private sector is also on the anvil, he added.

The move comes after several women employees wrote to the WCD ministry about delay in getting their complaints about sexual harassment resolved.

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WCD Ministry to set up Inter-Ministerial Committee and an e-platform for effective redressal of complaints of sexual harassment at workplace

The Minister of Women and Child Development, Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi held a review meeting on implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 in New Delhi today. Officials from the WCD Ministry, DoPT, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Railways and Department of Financial Services were present. Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi expressed her concern that the complaints of sexual harassment are not being handled in a timely as well as sensitive manner. She also expressed her concern that harassment often continues over a period of time and it is only after it becomes unbearable that a woman comes out to complain. In such situations, it is the duty of Internal Complaints Committee to decide on the complaint in the shortest possible time. The Minister also pointed out that the transfer of the aggressor can never be a solution to such a complaint and there should be harsher punishments when the complaint is found to be true.

2. After extensive deliberations, the following decisions were taken:

(i) The Ministry of WCD will set up an inter-ministerial committee headed by a senior official of the WCD Ministry. This committee will review the progress of disposal of complaints of sexual harassment, get a standardized training module prepared in collaboration with ISTM, ensure that heads of Internal Complaints Committee of all ministries/departments are given training on how to handle the complaints.

(ii) The ministry will be establishing a secure electronic platform for any woman employee of the government to file a complaint under the Act directly to the Ministry of WCD. These complaints will be then taken up with the respective ministries/ departments. This will enable a monitorable and transparent system of grievance redressal under the Act.

(iii) All ministries/ departments will furnish a monthly report to WCD ministry on the number of complaints received, disposed, pending and action taken etc.

(iv) All ministries/ departments and attached offices will furnish the annual statistics of complaints received and disposed under the Act in their Annual Reports. It was also decided that the inter ministerial committee will create a panel of resource persons from which ICCs can take the external members. In another important decision taken at the meeting today, all the training programmes of all services will have a module on the Act and DoPT will issue necessary instructions for this.

(v) It was also decided that the respective cadre controlling authority will keep every complainant under observation for a period of five years so that she is not subjected to any further administrative harassment as a result of her having complained against a male superior.

(vi) It was agreed that the Act, the rights of a woman official and the responsibility of the ICC must be given adequate publicity through different methods including the websites of the ministries/ departments/ attached offices.

In the past days, the Modi government saw a lot of commotion amid the unhappy central government employees with regard to the problems related to minimum wages. The knotty issue has since remained a pressing agenda for many, until today.

In a move that almost looks too good to be true, the Modi government has proposed an increase in the salary of President and the Vice President of India.

Right now, the President withdraws Rs 1.50 lakh per month, the Vice-President Rs 1.25 lakh and the Governor of a state Rs 1.10 lakh.

After the implementation of the 7th pay commission the Cabinet Secretary, who is the topmost bureaucrat in the country, gets Rs 2.5 lakh per month and a Secretary in the Union government draws Rs 2.25 lakh.

But now, the President’s salary will be 5 lakh and the Vice President’s Rs. 3.5 lakh. The spouses of the Presidents will be receiving Rs 30,000 as compensation.

According to sources, the union ministry has already prepared a cabinet note on the proposed salary and is about to present it to the finance committee for a final nod.

Ever since the 7th pay commission swooped in, the salary of the two highest employees of Indian Government looked like peanuts. It increased the pay of the cabinet secretary with more than Rs 1 lakh than that of the President.

The pay commission doesn’t declare or decide the salaries of the President or the Vice President and the prerogative to effect a change lies with Parliament and the government.

The last hike was given in the year 2010 when the salaries were increased by 300%.

The President’s wages was increased to Rs 1.50 lakh per month from Rs 50,000, the Vice-President's to Rs 1.25 lakh from Rs 40,000 and the Governor's salary o Rs 1.10 lakh from Rs 36,000.

Sources said that the Allowance Committee Meeting has finalized a proposal on HRA. It will be finalized in the Meeting held on 25th October 2016. It is said that the proposed Meeting under the Chairmanship of DOPT Secretary (P) with the Secretary Staff Side, NC (JCM) is to firm up the view on various allowances pertaining to Department of Personnel & Training.

This Meeting is conducted as per the decision of Allowance Committee Meeting held on 1-9-2016. The meeting to finalize the allowances pertaining to DOPT has been scheduled to be held on 25th October 2016.

The Reliable Sources said that the Official Side are in the view of increasing HRA by 1 Stage to reach 30% , 20% and 10% .

The pay Commission recommended HRA at the rates initially from 24%, 16%, and 8 % and whenever DA reaches 50% it will be increased to 27%, 18% and 9% and Finally after DA reaches 100% the HRA will be revised to 30% , 20% and 10% for X,Y and Z cities respectively.

The NCJCM has demanded in its Memorandum submitted to the 7th Pay Commission that 60%, 40% and 20% HRA to be recommended for X,Y and Z cities.

The Pay Commission totally ignored this demand and recommended reduction of rates from Sixth CPC. Since it is Co related with DA , it will be increased after two stages to 30%, 20% and 10% after DA reaches 50% and 100%.

The sources said that now it is proposed to start the HRA rates initially from 27%, 18% and 9% and after DA reaches 50% the House Rent Allowance will be revised to 30%, 20% and 10% for X,Y and Z cities respectively.

Hon'ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi Ji, unveiled several development schemes in Varanasi on 24th October 2016 during his visit to Varanasi. He inaugurated new Varanasi Postal Region. Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Hon'ble Governor of Uttar Pradesh Shri Ram Naik and Hon'ble MoS for Communications and Railways Shri Manoj Sinha released commemorative stamp on Varanasi city at the function held at Varanasi on 24th October 2016.

Members of armed forces and some government employees posted in remote areas or abroad will be able to use a system of electronic postal balloting to make it easier and faster for them to cast their votes.

According to senior officials of the government, the legislative department of the law ministry on Friday issued a notification that brought into effect the process of e-postal ballots.

The technical team of the Election Commission of India has developed a system whereby a blank postal ballot could be electronically transmitted to the voter. The voter would have to download the ballot, fill it in and send it back though the postal service.

The move is another step in the government’s Digital India project.

For now, e-postal ballots will only be available to service voters, including personnel of the armed forces, members of Indian supplementary reserve forces, personnel serving outside the state where they are registered as voters and government officials posted outside the country.

The move dispenses with the existing system of two-way postal ballots, which caused significant delays. It is also aimed at easing the difficulty faced by service voters in casting their votes from remote locations. The new system will enable voters to download a postal ballot, print the same, mark their vote and then use the postal service to mail it to the returning officer. The two-way electronic ballots were discouraged by the Election Commission for “security and secrecy reasons”.

This electronic voting system is being introduced on a pilot basis for service voters, but could be later extended to others including special voters and those in preventive detention.

NEW DELHI: As many as 2.5 crore salaried tax payers will now receive SMS alerts from the Income Tax department regarding their quarterly TDS deductions.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today launched the SMS alert service for Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) for salaried class and the CBDT will soon offer this facility on a monthly basis.

Briefing reporters about the facility, Jaitley said salaried class cannot afford to pay tax twice or indulge in litigations and hence they should be kept updated about their TDS deductions.

"Hence tax payers will benefit if they receive information through use of technology. So they can match the office salary slip and the SMS and at the end of the fiscal he will be clear about any possible tax dues," Jaitley said.

He asked the CBDT to work towards making the grievance redressal system for TDS mismatch online so that there is no interface between the tax payer and the tax department.

Jaitley said e-Nivaran is working well for tax payers and the CBDT is taking several tax payer friendly initiatiave.

The CBDT will soon extend this SMS facility to another 4.4 crore non-salaried tax payers.

"The frequency of SMS alerts will be increased, once the process for filing TDS returns is stremlined to receive such information on a real time basis," the CBDT said.

CBDT Chairperson Rani Singh Nair said the tax department is encouraging people to register their mobile number on the e-filing website.

She said tax payer will initially receive a welcome message from the CBDT informing him about the facility and after that each assessee would be sent messages informing them about their respective TDS deductions.

The new step is an effort by the I-T department to directly communicate deposit of tax deducted through SMS alerts to salaried tax payers. In case of a mismatch, they can contact their deductor for necessary correction.

Besides, SMS alerts will also be sent to deductors who have either failed to deposit taxes deducted ot to e-file their TDS returns by the due date.